Judge allows lawsuit against Tri-City to move forward

A lawsuit alleging Tri-City Healthcare District is disenfranchising voters will proceed after a superior court judge last week denied a move by the public hospital district that would have halted the suit.

Carlsbad attorney and activist Leon Page sued the hospital district for blocking elected director Randy Horton from closed session meetings, which he said alienates the director’s constituents. Tri-City officials said he divulged confidential information from the meetings.

Tri-City argued the case should be stricken because it was a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP. In other words, Page’s lawsuit sought to diminish First Amendment rights of the elected governing board, which voted to censure Horton and exclude him from the meetings.

Page and his attorney Ronald Cozad argued their case was a public interest lawsuit, and is not subject to the SLAPP provisions in state code. Judge Timothy M. Casserly agreed, affirming that Page “seeks no relief for himself other than any relief he would realize as a member of the public ... (and) seeks to enforce the rights of the voters to have their chosen representative participate in closed session meetings of the board,” the ruling said.

Tri-City officials in a written statement said they will consider appealing.

“Tri-City is presently evaluating whether to appeal the order in order to avoid the expenses to taxpayers that the District would incur should Page’s lawsuit proceed to trial,” the statement said. “Tri-City disagrees with the decision. ... The decision does not address whether the District’s Board has the power to exclude members from closed session nor did it address whether any of Page’s legal theories have merit.”

The ruling did, however, acknowledge that the board action to censure Horton was protected under the First Amendment, Tri-City officials said.

Page said he was pleased the court recognized the case as a matter of public interest.

“Though not a ruling on the merits, I think the court’s decision bodes well,” he said. “When all is said and done, I don’t believe that any court is going to allow Tri-City — or any local agency — to pick and choose which duly elected members can attend and represent their constituents in closed session meetings.”

At a hearing July 20, Casserly encouraged the parties to settle, perhaps anticipating likely appeals no matter the outcome.

A mandatory settlement conference was set for Sept. 21 with Judge Richard E. Mills, and a hearing on the merits of the case is scheduled to go before Casserly soon after, if no agreement can be reached.

District officials said they would let Horton back into closed session meetings if he signed a confidentiality policy approved by the board in October.

Horton said in December that he opposed the policy because there are already laws in place governing confidentiality of closed session meetings.

Tri-City Director Kathleen Sterling is not part of Page’s lawsuit. She is also barred from the closed session meetings and is being sued by the health care district, has been censured by the board several times and is required to attend the public meetings from a separate room via video conference. Sterling has also refused to sign the confidentiality agreement.

Page on July 16 filed papers to run for a seat on board of the MiraCosta College, a public agency he sued over a payout given to a former MiraCosta president after she resigned. He serves as deputy county counsel for Orange County.